Bing Su, a Chinese geneticist at the state-run Kunming Institute of Zoology, recently inserted the human MCPH1 gene, which develops the brain, into a monkey. The insertion could make that animal’s intelligence more human than that of lower primates. Su’s next experiment is inserting into monkeys the SRGAP2C gene, related to human intelligence, and the FOXP2 gene, connected to language skills.
Has nobody in China seen Planet of the Apes?
Or maybe they have. “Biotechnology development in China is heading in a truly macabre direction,”writes Brandon Weichert of The Weichert Report in an article posted on the American Greatness website. In a communist society with unrestrained ambition, researchers are pursuing weird science. What happens when you mix pig and monkey DNA? Chinese experimenters can tell you. How about growing human-like organs in animals? Yes, they have done that as well.
Moreover, Beijing may already be engineering “super soldiers.” “U.S. intelligence shows that China has conducted human testing on members of the People’s Liberation Army in hope of developing soldiers with biologically enhanced capabilities,” wrote then Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, in a December 3 Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “China Is National Security Threat No. 1.”
It is not clear how far Chinese military researchers have gone. They are, however, advocating use of the CRISPR gene-editing tool to enhance human capabilities, and the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission is “supporting research in human performance enhancement and ‘new concept’ biotechnology.”
The People’s Liberation Army has gone all-in on gene editing of humans. As leading analysts Elsa Kania and Wilson VornDick report, there are “striking parallels in themes repeated by a number of PLA scholars and scientists from influential institutions.”
All these Chinese moves are meant to obtain “biological dominance.” “There are,” as Ratcliffe noted, “no ethical boundaries to Beijing’s pursuit of power.”
It is clear that the Communist Party is thinking about more than just soldiers. A Chinese researcher is also the first — and so far only — person to gene-edit human embryos that produced live births.
He Jiankui, while at Southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, used the CRISPR-Cas9 tool to remove gene CCR5 to give twin girls, born in late 2018, immunity to HIV but perhaps also to enhance intelligence. The experiment evoked the eugenics program of the Third Reich to create a “master race.”
China is in the process of creating the “perfect Communist,” Weichert, also the author of Winning Space, told Gatestone. “China is run by a regime that believes in the perfectibility of mankind, and with the advent of modern genetic and biotechnology research, China’s central planners now have the human genome itself to perfect according to their political agenda.”
Chinese scientists already are on the road of “gene-doping” to make future generations smarter and more innovative than those in countries refusing to embrace these controversial methods. “What you are witnessing in China,” Weichert has written, “is the convergence of advanced technology with cutting-edge bio-sciences, capable of fundamentally altering all life on this planet according to the capricious whims of a nominally Communist regime.”
Shenzhen’s He, after an international uproar caused by news of his dangerous and unethical work, was fined and jailed for “illegally carrying out human embryo gene-editing,” but in the Communist Party’s near-total surveillance state, he obviously had state backing for his experiments.
He’s efforts are not isolated. Nature magazine’s news team reported in April 2015 that Chinese researchers at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, in another world-first experiment, edited “non-viable” human embryos with CRISPR-Cas9. “A Chinese source familiar with developments in the field said that at least four groups in China are pursuing gene editing in human embryos,” the magazine’s website stated.
Beijing’s prosecution of He, therefore, looks like an attempt to cool down the furor and prevent the international scientific community from further inquiry into China’s activities.
Unfortunately, China’s advances in gene editing human embryos for super soldiers is persuading others they must do the same. Soon, for instance, there will be “Le Terminator.” The French government has just given approval for augmented soldiers. “We have to be clear, not everyone has the same scruples as us and we have to prepare ourselves for such a future,” declared French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly.
Michael Clarke of Kings College London told the Sun, the British tabloid, there is now a biological competition fueled by China. Will we soon have, as the International Society for Military Ethics has dubbed it, a race of “homo robocopus”?
If we do, China will not be the only party to blame. “What is most disturbing about these endeavors is that China has gleaned access to CRISPR and advanced genetic and biotech research, thanks to their relationship with the United States and other advanced Western nations,” Weichert told Gatestone this month. “American research labs, biotech investors, and scientists have all striven to do research and business in China’s budding biotech arena explicitly because the ethical standards for research on this sensitive issue are so low.”
“This will prove to be a long-term strategic threat to the United States that few in Washington, on Wall Street, or in Silicon Valley understand,” Weichert says, referring to China’s rapid weaponization of biotechnology.
China’s regime does not have ethics or decency, is not bound by law, and does not have a sense of restraint. It does, however, have the technology to start a whole new species of genetically enhanced, goose-stepping humans.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2021-02-15 09:03:052021-10-07 20:33:37Is China Creating A New Master Race?
Independent physicist John Droz alerted me to the website of Deep Green Resistance (DGR), an international environmental organization that calls for the total destruction of what it refers to as the “global industrial economy,” a.k.a. capitalism. Given the group’s progressive credentials, its call for dismantling capitalism throughout the world is not surprising.
What is surprising is that in an unusual show of progressive candor, Deep Green Resistance openly acknowledges what skeptical scientists have been saying for more than two decades: that renewable energy is a government-backed hoax that enriches big corporations and green energy investors at the expense of taxpayers and the environment. If you find that admission hard to believe, please keep reading. The questions and answers below were copied from the organization’s website.
Will green technology save the planet?
No. Wind turbines, solar PV panels, and the grid itself are all manufactured using cheap energy from fossil fuels. When fossil fuel costs begin to rise such highly manufactured items will simply cease to be feasible.
Solar panels and wind turbines aren’t made out of nothing. They are made out of metals, plastics, and chemicals. These products have been mined out of the ground, transported, processed, manufactured. Each stage leaves behind a trail of devastation: habitat destruction, water contamination, colonization, toxic waste, slave labor, greenhouse gas emissions, wars, and corporate profits. [Author’s note: The devastation can be seen in this 3-min. clip from Michael Moore’s renewable energy documentary “Planet of the Humans.”]
The basic ingredients for renewables are the same materials that are ubiquitous in industrial products, like cement and aluminum. No one is going to make cement in any quantity without using the energy of fossil fuels. And aluminum? The mining itself is a destructive and toxic nightmare from which riparian communities will not awaken in anything but geologic time.
From beginning to end, so called “renewable energy” and other “green technologies” lead to the destruction of the planet. These technologies are rooted in the same industrial extraction and production processes that have rampaged across the world for the last 150 years.
We are not concerned with slightly reducing the harm caused by industrial civilization; we are interested in stopping that harm completely. Doing so will require dismantling the global industrial economy, which will render impossible the creation of these technologies.
Will renewable energy save the economy?
Renewable energy technologies rely heavily on government subsidies, taken from taxpayers and given directly to large corporations like General Electric, BP, Samsung, and Mitsubishi. While the scheme pads their bottom lines, it doesn’t help the rest of us.
Further, this is the wrong question to ask. The industrial capitalist economy is dispossessing and impoverishing billions of humans and killing the living world. Renewable energy depends on centralized capital and power imbalance. We don’t benefit from saving that system.
Instead of advocating for more industrial technology, we need to move to local economies based on community decision-making and what our local landbases can provide sustainably. And we need is to stop the global economy on which renewable energy depends.
“Stopping the global economy” means destroying the capitalist system that created here in America the most widespread prosperity the world has ever known. That a progressive eco-group would admit that the true agenda behind the push for renewable energy has nothing to do with “saving the planet” and everything to do with destroying capitalism is quite remarkable. To reinforce its position that renewable energy is a hoax, DGR’s website has a cartoon that shows dollar bills being sucked from a wind turbine directly into the pocket of a fat cat investor in subsidized green energy projects.
The Elmer Gantry of renewable energy
Few insiders have profited more from taxpayer-backed renewable energy projects than Al Gore. When he left the vice presidency in 2001, his net worth was estimated at $1 million to $2 million. Since then, his wealth has skyrocketed to $300 million, and if the climate change legislation he advocates is enacted, the former vice president stands to become a billionaire. Much of his enviable fortune has come from being an inside investor in government-backed renewable energy projects, many of which went belly up after the insiders made off with millions, leaving hard-working U.S. taxpayers stuck with the bill.
Like all wealthy eco-preachers, the Elmer Gantry of renewable energy uses his immense wealth to indulge in lavish living. When asked by Rep. Marsha Blackburn during his 2009 testimony before Congress whether he personally profits from his advocacy of global warming, Pastor Al professed a vow of poverty, and if you’ve never seen video of the tense encounter, you don’t want to miss it: “Every penny I have made I have put into a non-profit deal, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to spread awareness of why we have to take on this challenge. And Congresswoman, if you believe the reason I have been working on this issue for 30 years is out of greed, you do not know me.”
Turned out Rep. Blackburn knows him quite will. As greedy owner of a gargantuan green energy fortune, Pastor Al looked her squarely in the eye and denied making even a penny of profit. If every penny he makes goes into a non-profit deal, how did he end up with $300 million? The same way his alter ego pilfered money from the Lord: by concealing his true stripes.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00John Eidsonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngJohn Eidson2021-02-12 06:28:152021-10-07 20:33:47Progressive Eco-Group: Renewable Energy is a Hoax
The San Francisco Board of Education voted late Tuesday to abandon the merit-based admissions process at a prestigious public high school after students, faculty, and others claimed the system perpetuates white supremacy.
Lowell High School—a public school within the San Francisco Unified School District often ranked among the nation’s best high schools—will now admit students through a lottery, rather than choosing students with the best grades and test scores.
The school board’s resolution alleges that the admissions process at Lowell “perpetuates the culture of white supremacy and racial abuse towards black and Latinx students” and calls on the district to conduct an audit of racist incidents and create antiracist training programs for students.
While students of color currently make up more than 75 percent ofthe student body, Lowell is often critiqued for lacking diversity.More than half of studentsare Asian, less than 2 percent are black, and less than 12 percent are Latino.
Like many schools across the country, Lowell High School paused its merit-based admissions process last fall after the coronavirus pandemic interrupted admissions tests, much to the chagrin of Lowell parents and alumni. Families of high-achieving students in San Francisco view the selective, academically rigorous school as a more economical alternative to private schooling, according to the San FranciscoChronicle.
Rather than dismantling the current enrollment system at Lowell, critics of the resolution—including students who spoke at the board meeting Tuesday night—suggest that the school district should do more to assist black and Latino students at the elementary and middle school levels.
“If the board wants to fight racism and truly believes that ‘all SFUSD high schools are academic schools,’ then simply put more resources into all the other high schools,” Lowell High School alum Emil Guillermo wrote in the Chronicle. “Don’t lower the bar at Lowell. Raise the bar at the neighborhood schools and make them all shine.”
Lowell is the only high school in the San Francisco Unified School District that uses a merit-based admissions process. The school board’s resolution claims California law prohibits public high schools from enrolling students based on grades.
The school’s Black Student Union has for years spoken out against an allegedly exclusive and discriminatory culture at Lowell. Last week, members of the group protested against a racist incident that occurred during an online antiracist training session last month. Hackers, who some believe could have been students, posted racial slurs aimed at black and Jewish students, as well as pornographic images, on an online conversation board.
Neither the San Francisco Unified School District nor the school board responded to the Washington Free Beacon’s request for comment in time for publication.
Last week’s resolution came alongside the district’s decision to change the names of 44 San Francisco public schools named after historical figures now deemed problematic. Schools named after presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln will be renamed. Critics objected to the district’s reasons for renaming 3 of those 44 schools: Paul Revere Preparatory School, James Lick Middle School, and Lowell High School.
Lowell is the latest elite American high school to abandon merit-based admissions in favor of processes that can be used to achieve racial quotas. Last fall, the Fairfax County Public Schools Board in Virginia eliminated the entrance test for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in an effort to boost black and Latino enrollment numbers
EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. Quick note: Tech giants are snuffing us out. You know this. Facebook, Twitter, Google et al have shadowbanned, suspended and in some cases deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here. Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s critical NOW more than ever.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2021-02-12 05:30:102021-10-07 20:33:48Elite San Francisco School Nixes Merit-Based Admission
I have been married to my wife and life partner for 55 years. Sadly, I am the exception rather than the rule.
QUESTION: Why haven’t we made it a priority to support, promote and reward marriage as between one man and one woman, till death do them part?
The first recorded evidence of a marriage ceremony uniting one woman and one man dates from circa 2350 B.C., in Mesopotamia.
The family is the bed rock of any culture and the highest ideal of any society. Marriage is more than a bond between one man and one woman. It is a spiritual, social and cultural construct that requires faith, trust and fidelity forever.
There are many things that destroy a marriage, and with it the family. Among them are:
Government policies.
Moral decay.
Cultural decay.
The destruction of the “sanctity of marriage” as between one man and one woman.
Government Policies
One of the government policies that has lead to the destruction of marriage as between one man and one woman, and with it the family, is no-fault divorces.
A no-fault divorce is premised on the idea that one spouse does not have to prove the breakdown of the marriage is the other spouse’s fault, either based on their behavior or mental state.
This idea that no-one is at fault is a big lie. The truth is that either the husband or wife or both are at fault. Placing the fault is a way of punishing the wrong doer. It is a way of preserving the institution and sanctity of marriage.
The following states have no-fault divorce laws. In these states, people do not have the option of asserting the other person is at fault for the divorce.
In the rest of the country, you may file for divorce either asserting one of several legal fault grounds or you may file for a no-fault divorce. Of course, every state has its own statutes governing divorce, but generally speaking, legal fault grounds include:
Addiction or chemical dependency
Adultery
Bigamy
Desertion or abandonment
Impotence
Imprisonment of one of the parties to the marriage (and, in some states, criminal convictions)
Marriage between close relatives (as defined by the statutes of each state)
Marriage obtained by force or fraud
Mental abuse or mental cruelty
Mental illness
Mental incapacity at the time of the marriage
Physical abuse or physical cruelty
The Role of the Church and Santified Marriage
The notion of marriage as a sacrament, and not just a contract, can be traced to St. Paul who compared the relationship of a husband and wife to that of Christ and his church.
Ephesians 5:23, 25, 28–31 reads:
“The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. . . .
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;. . .
“So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.
“For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
“For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh”
Government Gets Involved in Marriage
To understand the history behind the massive and long term movement to infiltrate our institutions and government to destroy the family and marriage watch the below video.
Marriage began its downfall when government got involved. Before government involvement marriage, “was a private affair, an agreement between families that didn’t require government approval.”
Marriage licenses are a relatively new invention, dating only to the 19th century.
[ … ]
States started requiring a license and certificate because marriages have legal ramifications, affecting property, inheritance, and taxes. Couples needed to prove they were unmarried and of marriageable age (usually over 18), sharing some key details to get the go-ahead to wed. And in the 1930s, several U.S. states passed “gin marriage” laws, in response to Prohibition-era worries that people would enter into hasty marriages while under the influence of alcohol. They required couples to wait several days between receiving their license to wed and getting married.
Today government, with the approval of the U.S. Supreme Court, allows men to marry men and women to marry women. Both concepts have been tried before and failed. Only one man and one woman, since the time of Adam and Eve, have been considered the bedrock of marriage. Without marriage between one man and one woman, for life, there can only be heartbreak and sorrow.
Our uniquely American culture was based upon the ideal of marriage as between one man and one woman. Divorce was considered not just a failure but a threat to our culture and society. Divorce today is heralded by many in Hollywood as a badge of honor. If you haven’t been divorced you ain’t woke enough.
Woe upon the current culture of infidelity, sinfulness and evil.
Time to bring back marriage as only between one man and one woman. Damn be those who think otherwise for they are doing the work of satan to destroy families.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2021-02-06 08:41:412021-10-07 20:34:03Are No-Fault Divorces Destroying The Ideal of Marriage Between One Man and One Woman?
Dysphoria is a profound state of unease or dissatisfaction. It is the opposite of euphoria. In a psychiatric context, dysphoria may accompany depression, anxiety, or agitation.
‘Dysphoric’ is a four-part documentary series on the rise of Gender Identity Ideology, its effects on women and girls – especially in developing countries.
In this dystopian world where misogyny is rampant, and womanhood is commodified, being female comes at a cost. Corporates capitalise on women’s bodies blurring the lines of biological sex, and profiting from the emperically untested pseudo-science of queer theory.
This gaslighting is aided by the complicity of media, academia, legal and the political world. It is no surprise that young girls are fleeing womanhood like a house on fire. The past decade has seen a steep rise in the number of young girls seeking to transition by undergoing life threatening, irreversible procedures. ‘Dysphoric’ is a four-part documentary series on the rise of Gender Identity Ideology, its effects on women and girls – especially in developing countries.
The film explores gender transition, the permanent medical side-effects of hormones and surgeries, the propaganda by ‘woke’ corporations that glorifies thousands of stereotypical gender presentations coalesced as fashion, a surge in pronoun policing; language hijacking that calls women ‘menstruators’, and the many hurdles women face while trying to question this modern-day misogyny.
The film amplifies the voices of detransitioners, clinicians, psychiatrists, sociologists, feminists, academics and concerned citizens. ‘Dysphoric’ was made over the course of a year during COVID lockdown, amid cancellations.
“The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil constitution, are worth defending against all hazards: And it is our duty to defend them against all attacks.” – Samuel Adams
“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature.” – Benjamin Franklin
“The policy of American government is to leave its citizens free, neither restraining them nor aiding them in their pursuits.” – Thomas Jefferson
“Why are those who are notoriously undisciplined and unmoral also most contemptuous of religion and morality? They are trying to solace their own unhappy lives by pulling the happy down to their own abysmal depths.” – Bishop Fulton Sheen
Those of us who are constitutional conservatives and believe the words of the Holy Bible and America’s founders, who sought freedom and liberty for mankind, fear a dystopian society that imposes a harmful, oppressive, and miserable existence upon its citizens. The communists now in control of our federal government believe they are creating a “utopian” society promoted by Marx and Engels, but their utopia ultimately ends in starvation and death. We’ve watched for multiple decades as decay has set in at the very core of our liberty loving nation and America has been torn from her freedom loving roots.
Freedom loving Americans have become the pariahs who must be terminated for the good of the Marxist utopian society. Socialism makes you a slave to the government and that’s what has happened to our brainwashed public.
Covid-19 was used for many reasons against America by both China and Democratic Socialists, but the continued efforts by both parties to control the citizenry showed their true totalitarian natures. Lockdowns, masks and vaccines are far more dangerous to our health than Coronavirus and interestingly enough, we’ve had no seasonal flu this year.
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, 70, told a Federalist Society virtual convention last November that he thought the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic serves as a “sort of constitutional stress test.” He argued that America has “never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive, and prolonged as those experienced for most of 2020” and raised concerns over their impact on individuals’ civil liberties. Link
The real virus infecting America is not Covid-19. The Marxist-Leninist takeover of the Democrat Party is complete and the majority of the Republican Party is following the same path. The real danger is communism; it’s here and it’s going to cost us unless we stand together and fight.
Mask Mandates
According to Anthony Fauci, who is now the chief medical advisor under Biden, we’re supposed to wear two masks to keep from catching the new variants of the Covid-19 virus, a paper mask and a cloth mask over it. (Remember that back in March of 2020, he said there was no reason to be walking around with a mask.) Maybe three or four would be even better, to totally cut off our oxygen intake. CNBC touts that their experts suggest wearing three! Did we ever wear a mask for the seasonal flu virus in the past? Never! (Wait, I’m wrong…excuse me, many wore masks during the 1918-1919 Spanish flu epidemic that killed 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.)
Why did anyone think wearing a warm, moist rag a millimeter away from his or her mouth, for hours at a time, creating the ideal conditions for bacteria to multiply, would be a good thing? Link
In a previous article regarding Dr. Anthony Fauci, I stated that he had co-authored a paper about the 1918-1919 Spanish flu and said that many had died of bacterial pneumonia. This is true. However, I had also stated that he claimed masks were the cause. A devoted reader corrected me. Fauci did not claim that bacterial pneumonia was caused by masks but it’s interesting that wearing masks has caused numerous problems, including impetigo (usually caused by a staph infection), dental problems, yeast infections, acne etc. Link Today, doctors are warning that bacterial pneumonia is on the rise…and yes, it’s from wearing masks. Maybe Fauci and his friends forgot to mention this fact, or didn’t discover it.
Despite the knowledge that this evil Covid-19 virus was made in a bioweapon lab in Wuhan, China, it is still a virus and no more people have died in 2020 than have died in years past in America. Johns Hopkins reported that the yearly death rate remains normal despite Covid-19. Deaths from heart disease, respiratory disease, influenza, pneumonia and other causes have far lower stats for 2020, where Covid-19 deaths are higher. Yet the average of yearly deaths remains the same. Why? Because everyone is being categorized as dying from Covid-19 rather than their underlying comorbidity. The study was immediately withdrawn and trashed.
US Intelligence tells us that the Chinese government is collecting American’s DNA. Link60 Minutes has learned that the Chinese company, BGI Group, the largest biotech firm in the world, offered to build Covid labs in at least six states, and U.S. intelligence officials issued warnings not to share health data with BGI. The story was on Sunday, 31 January 21 on 60 minutes.
Beijing Genomics Institute, is a Chinese genome sequencing company, headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It was formed in 1999 to participate in the Human Genome Project as a genetics research center.
100 More Days
President Biden, elected via Dominion machines with Smartmatic software connected to the internet and sent to multiple foreign countries in order to intercept data of America’s 2020 election, has decided all federal people throughout the country should be masked until May 1st, 2021. And he wants all 50 states to follow through with mask mandates.
I see toddlers and young children with masks on their faces, put there by parents who believe the propaganda spewed by mainstream media. It makes me heartsick. And people alone in their cars with masks on their faces! The entire country wore masks everywhere for months, yet we had another surge of the virus. Our citizens are fools. We have become a nation of controlled lemmings who are abandoning freedom!
One Los Angeles health official went so far as to say that not wearing a mask is domestic terrorism! In another article, a couple was escorted off a plane because their two-year-old son refused to wear a mask! Never reported are those who are dying from mask wearing. If you’re outside, get the danged thing off your face!
The unelected tyrants in local health departments are issuing these decrees without any studies whatsoever. I wonder how many of them own stock in the mask making companies.
We are not the citizens who won back-to-back World Wars! America’s propagandists in the mainstream media have stampeded the public into fear and panic over the virus in order to generate support for their totalitarian agenda. Few Americans have seen through it…and that is most alarming.
Statistics
According to the CDC, along with studies by people in the age groups of 0 to 19 have a 99.997% chance of survival if they contract COVID-19, the age group of 20 to 49 a 99.98% chance, 50 to 69 years old 99.5% and 70 years old and above a 94.6% chance.
The case fatality rate of Covid-19 is 0.1 to 0.3 percent which is the same exact case fatality rate as the regular seasonal flu. They shut down the entire world economy for a lie! The WHO came out with a 3.4 case fatality rate and Fauci came along and cut it to 1.0 rate, which is 10 times higher than seasonal influenza. The middleclass was purposely destroyed, and they still have foolish Americans in masks.
Last September One America News reported that medical researchers from UCLA and Stanford University found that the chances of dying from Covid are much lower than previously thought. Even the likelihood of contracting the virus, going to the hospital or even death from Covid-19 is an extremely rare event. An average person in an average county has a one in 3,836 chance of becoming infected and that’s without wearing masks or doing any social distancing. Odds of being hospitalized are vanishingly small even for people in the at-risk category.
If you’re between the ages of 50-64 years old, the chances of getting the virus and needing hospitalization are one in 852,000. And for that same person who is at risk, the chance of dying from Coronavirus is one in 19.1 million. All these stats are from last May 2020 when deaths were 16 times higher than when this was reported. The risk from dying in an automobile crash is one in 114. Yet, we were sold lockdown insanity.
One America News also reported that researchers in Australia say Ivermectin can cure Covid in 48 hours. Ivermectin is typically used for parasitic infections, yet a peer review study conducted last April stated Ivermectin could kill the virus with one dose.
One of my neighbors is elderly. She contracted Covid-19 and her smell and taste was gone, and she had sinus problems. Her physician gave her Azithromycin and she recovered. She is 82, her husband is 88 and he has a comorbidity. He insisted on sleeping with her should she have a problem in the night, and he watched over her even though she wanted him to sleep in another bedroom. She was fine, and he never contracted Covid.
Lockdowns
Small businesses have been wiped out, and millions of middleclass Americans have been decimated. Yet, the big box stores allowed to stay open have flourished while small businesses faced total destruction. Far more damage has been done to middle America by the lockdowns than by the fraudulently dangerous Covid-19 flu.
Cases of Covid-19 rose despite the lockdowns. Of course, they did…the locked down folks needed to be exposed to get herd immunity, but the totalitarian dictators knew that every time the lockdown was lifted, Covid-19 would spread again, and they could force another lockdown. Over the course of the past year, class inequalities have grown wider and have become more entrenched. And yet, at each turn, left-wing lockdown lovers have demanded ever-more severe restrictions on people’s lives.
Had America left the entire country open; Professor Isaac Ben-Israel claims that within 40 to 70 days the virus would have passed through all of those who were not sheltered for comorbidities, and it would have been over. Unfortunately, the communist controllers in this country wanted the Trump economy destroyed along with small businesses so that they would rely on government handouts, and the middle class who loves freedom would be decimated. Well done by the Marxists in control. How many have committed suicide because their life’s work was ruined by the shutdowns and then by the communist BLM and Antifa riots. And nothing was done to stop them! Nothing!
How easily we have snowballed into a full-fledged Marxist/fascist nation, with political dictators releasing criminals from prison and imprisoning those who refuse lockdown orders.
Truth in Medicine
America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) have been at the forefront of telling us the truth. They knew that Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Azithromycin (Z-Pak) and common zinc cured early onset Covid-19. Dr. Simone Gold, who is also an attorney, said, “Follow the science always meant ‘follow,’ but never the ‘science.’” A new study out of New Jersey actually validates what the frontline docs have told us.
Dr. Gold tweeted, “On Inauguration Day, 6+ months after AFLDS said it, The WHO announced a single PCR test is not reliable. “Coincidentally” the number of “cases” will now plummet.”
Elon Musk had four tests in one day by the very same way, same machine, left nostril positive twice, and right nostril negative twice. Sounds like we’ve been had!
PCR assays are not designed to be used as diagnostic tools, as they can’t distinguish between inactive viruses and “live” or reproductive ones. Besides that, previously, the WHO had recommended 45 “amplification” cycles of the test to determine whether someone was positive for Covid or not.
The thing is, the more cycles that a test goes through, the more likely that a false positive will come up — anything over 30 cycles actually magnifies the samples so much that even insignificant sequences of viral DNA end up being magnified to the point that the test reads positive even if your viral load is extremely low or the virus is inactive and poses no threat to you or anyone else.
There are no guardrails on the left or the right to protect the Republic from communism. Other than a handful of constitutionalists, both parties have joined the socialist agenda. President Trump, as much as he did for America in four years, and as much as he loved her and her citizens, he lacked discernment in hiring good people and continually chose from the swamp.
Matt Bracken writes in the American Partisan, “The American Left has no self-correction mechanism. (Examples of contemporary Leftist insanity: transsexuals welcomed into the military, biological boys ordered onto girls’ sports teams and in girls locker rooms, etc.) This Leftist insanity is anything but unprecedented. From the French Revolution, to the Paris Commune, the Bolshevik Revolution and through all the horrors of 20th Century Communism, the Left has proven that when it is unchecked, it will drive at full speed straight off the cliff of civilized norms of behavior into totalitarian systems of guillotines, Gulags, forced starvations, and killing fields.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Kelleigh Nelsonhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngKelleigh Nelson2021-02-03 09:44:392021-10-07 20:34:11The Real Virus is not Covid, it’s Communism
I’m not picking on Stacey Griffith per se, because you know there are others like her who have been so freaked out by Dr. Fauci (and Chairman Joe) that they are willing to push grannies out of the way in order to get an experimental vaccine.
It really is amazing how powerful herd mentality can be.
Snagging the vaccine appears to be the new craze for the Lefties.
President Trump was criticized for trying to keep Americans calm about the pandemic, but now the Fauci (Biden) frenzy is unleashed and has gone into high gear.
SoulCycle instructor apologizes for getting COVID-19 vaccine, which sparked backlash
A star instructor for the trendy cycling workout brand is backpedaling after being criticized for getting the COVID-19 vaccine under the pretense of being a teacher.
On Friday, Stacey Griffith — a top fitness coach in New York City who, according to a recent Vox report, makes at least $800 per class — shared footage from her trip to Staten Island to get the Moderna vaccine.
“Now I can teach @SoulCycle with a little more faith that we’re all gonna be OK if we get the [vaccine],” Griffith, whose celebrity clients have included Kelly Ripa and Madonna, told her 64,000 followers on Instagram.
It didn’t take long for many of those followers to chide the 52-year-old author of Two Turns from Zero for bypassing elderly and high-risk individuals who have yet to be vaccinated.
“Let’s celebrate that we are making the world safe for in-person spin class in the midst of a global pandemic,” read one comment, from a woman who shared that she and her wife, a cancer patient, were still months away from being eligible for their own shots. “What’s left of any respect that I had for Soul and the leaders it celebrates is done and gone.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Ann Corcoranhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngAnn Corcoran2021-02-02 06:44:592021-10-07 20:34:17Young, Healthy and Woke Jumping the Line for China Virus Vaccine
If there was a video documenting every second of my life, you can bet it would contain some pretty stupid comments I’ve made over the years. I would also probably be reminded of some opinions I no longer believe. If you’re being honest with yourself, yours likely would be equally cringe.
The things we have said in the past may not have been outrageously offensive, but we have all made comments, or held opinions, we later regret. We are, after all, inherently flawed creatures.
But imagine if one instance of poor judgment or one “fringe” opinion stuck with you forever. This is the problem our society is now facing with the prevalence of cancel culture.
In 2016, then-high school freshman Mimi Groves posted a video to Snapchat in which she used a racial slur. The video later circulated around her school, though it wasn’t met with controversy at the time.
Fellow classmate Jimmy Galligan hadn’t seen the footage until last year when the two were seniors—four years after it first made the rounds at Heritage High School. By this time, Groves had moved on to focus on her role as varsity cheer captain with big dreams of attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a school known for its nationally ranked cheer squad.
For Groves, summer 2020 had been a time of celebration as she found out she had been accepted to the university’s cheer team. But her joy was short-lived when the death of George Floyd rightly outraged the nation, sparking a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Like many teens, Groves used her social media platforms to urge people to protest, donate, and sign petitions in support of ending police brutality. It was then that her unfortunate video came back to haunt her.
“You have the audacity to post this, after saying the N-word,” one commenter, unknown to the teen, posted on her Instagram.
That’s when her phone began ringing nonstop.
Galligan had held onto the video made four years earlier and had chosen to celebrate Groves’ admission to UT by blasting the footage to every major social media platform.
As the video began going viral, public outrage ensued, calling for the university to rescind her acceptance.
Capitulating to the mob, UT removed her from their cheer team, a decision that resulted in Groves withdrawing from the school because of what she perceived as pressure from the school’s admissions office.
Make no mistake, making racial slurs of any kind is demeaning and inappropriate behavior. But is one comment made four years prior enough to ruin the future of a teen who hadn’t even entered adulthood yet?
The court of public opinion said yes, without giving Groves any chance at redemption.
Why People ‘Cancel’
Groves’ story is just one of many.
Cancel culture has become more widespread over the last several years than anyone could have imagined. When I penned this article on the topic two years ago, I had no idea the problem would escalate to the level it has reached today.
But cancel culture isn’t reserved only for those who have made distasteful comments in the past.
Today, those espousing any opinion that goes against “woke” rhetoric are ridiculed online, fired from their jobs, and some are banned from using popular social media platforms altogether.
One University of North Carolina Wilmington professor, Mike Adams, even took his own life after tweets construed as offensive pushed him into early retirement after years of service to the institution.
“Part of a call-out culture is you get credit based on what someone else said if you ‘call it out,'” he said in a 2018 interview.
This virtue signaling, which is really just a means of proving to society how “good” and “moral” your views are, is only half of the equation, however. Cancel culture is also about personal destruction, which is obvious in Groves’ situation, since Galligan didn’t use this ammunition against her until the time was ripe for maximum harm.
“It(cancel culture) has reached a level of personal vindictiveness, where people go out of their way to find ways the things other people say could be construed as insensitive,” Haidt said.
Slurs and inappropriate comments aside, cancel culture has made people scared to share their opinions lest they be condemned for thinking “incorrectly” about any given issue.
The Costs Cancel Culture
We now live in an era where people are constantly looking over their shoulders, or computer screens, worried that whatever opinion they post might make them victims of cancel culture.
There is no opportunity to change one’s mind, nor is there room to defend opinions you genuinely believe. And this is a huge problem for any civil society.
Haidt spoke of the importance of protecting open dialogue so that we may live in a society filled with varying opinions from which to choose.
“One of the most important [aspects] is that people are not afraid to share their opinions – they’re not afraid that they’re going to be shamed socially for disagreeing with the dominant opinion,” Haidt said.
The odds are high that your opinions about certain issues will change over time. However, some may not, and you shouldn’t live in fear that your beliefs will be met with social condemnation and isolation.
We are no longer given the room to share our opinions today because we are no longer able to disagree with each other respectfully.
You’re not always going to agree with everything other people say — not your professors, your classmates, or your parents. In fact, you might even find that your own views change as you learn new things and grow as a person and adult.
But having the freedom to consider all opinions and decide what you genuinely believe is vital to the human experience and civil discourse.
There is a market of choice in all things, from what clothes you wear, products you buy, and what ideas you subscribe to.
When you go shopping, you might not like the first outfit you try. You might not even like the second or third. But trying on different looks, or opinions, allows you to think for yourself and figure out what it is you want, or believe.
To be truly open-minded, you must be able to consider all opinions, instead of condemning any thought contrary to your own. The free exchange of ideas pushes individuals to share unique ideas and allows for opinions to evolve.
Dissent is what makes democracy strong. Our Constitution has outlasted so many others because the Founders disagreed and debated with each other until they crafted a document that fostered “a more perfect union” than had ever been seen before. We would be wise not to forget the example they set.
Put simply, shaming others doesn’t work. It’s purely punitive, and self-aggrandizing. It also rarely changes a person’s mind and often further radicalizes their beliefs, widening the divide already growing in our country.
To foster a world where ideas can be freely expressed, Pacific Legal Foundation will be hosting an event this Friday featuring Haidt that will examine the many ways free speech serves as a central tenet of innovation, community, and civil society, and how we can preserve and protect this fundamental value that makes our society so extraordinary.
Without the ability to speak freely and consider all opinions, civil discourse cannot occur. In its absence, society as we know it will cease to exist and the divides between us will continue to grow.
The Biden administration is expected to announce a temporary suspension of new oil and gas leasing on U.S. federal lands and waters on Wednesday
President Joe Biden will make the announcement as part of a second batch of executive orders aimed at combating climate change
The policy is an abrupt about-face from his predecessor Donald Trump who sought to maximize the country’s oil, gas and coal output
Biden had vowed to ban new federal oil and gas drilling during his campaign for the White House
The orders will impact large swathes of acreage onshore in mostly Western states, as well as offshore drilling acreage located mainly in the Gulf of Mexico
It could lead to the loss of 2.8 million jobs directly linked to the industries
By Associated Press and James Gordon For Dailymail.com, 26 January 2021
President Joe Biden is set to announce a wide-ranging moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on U.S. lands and waters, as his administration moves quickly to reverse Trump administration policies on energy and the environment and address climate change – but it will also lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
Two people with knowledge of Biden´s plans outlined the proposed moratorium, which will be announced Wednesday. They asked not to be identified because the plan has not been made been public; some details remain in flux.
The move follows a 60-day suspension of new drilling permits for U.S. lands and waters announced last week and follows Biden´s campaign pledge to halt new drilling on federally controlled land and water as part of his plan to address climate change.
The Biden administration is expected to announce a temporary suspension of new oil and gas leasing on U.S. federal lands and waters on Wednesday
The moratorium is intended to allow time for officials to review the impact of oil and gas drilling on the environment and climate.
Environmental groups hailed the expected moratorium as the kind of urgent action needed to slow climate change.
‘The fossil fuel industry has inflicted tremendous damage on the planet. The administration´s review, if done correctly, will show that filthy fracking and drilling must end for good, everywhere,’ said Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group that has pushed for the drilling pause.
Oil industry groups, however, slammed the move, saying Biden had already eliminated thousands of oil and gas jobs by killing the Keystone XL oil pipeline on his first day in office.
President Joe Biden will make the announcement as part of a second batch of executive orders aimed at combating climate change
‘This is just the start. It will get worse,’ said Brook Simmons, president of the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma. ‘Meanwhile, the laws of physics, chemistry and supply and demand remain in effect. Oil and natural gas prices are going up, and so will home heating bills, consumer prices and fuel costs.’
‘In the first couple of days of the new administration, they are taking actions that will harm the economy and cost Americans their jobs,’ said Frank Macchiarola, a senior vice president of policy for the American Petroleum Institute. ‘We’re concerned, and everyone in the country should be concerned.’
A 2017 report produced by the American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade and lobbying association, suggests nearly 2.8 million jobs are directly linked to fossil fuels with a further 5.3 million in sectors sustained by the spending of oil and gas companies.
RELATED TWEET:
Since his first day in office, @POTUS has signed dozens of executive actions without consulting Congress.
This is no way to legislate. I am deeply concerned about the impact these decisions will have on our country.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00The Geller Reporthttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngThe Geller Report2021-01-28 07:27:272021-10-07 20:34:29Illegitimate ‘President’ Biden to STOP oil and gas sales on public lands
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2021-01-26 08:06:032021-10-07 20:34:36VIDEO: Biden Has No Plan for Covid
President Trump’s policies continue to reveal what destroyers and enemies of the people the Democrats are.
President Biden has been reversing or pausing some rules put in place under former President Donald Trump this week, including one designed to bring down the price of insulin.
To those 80M that voted for Biden. Pls explain how INCREASING the price of Insulin for those that need it is a Win?
Look, America did not vote for Unemployment High taxes Communist China ISIS Iran Federal mask mandates Rampant illegal immigration Amnesty Paris Climate rape job Jihad immigration Jew hatred US troop deployments to third world USA-hating shitholes
Is Biden’s rush to reverse Trump policies in nation’s best interest?
FOX News Washington correspondent Rich Edson details the foreign policy concerns on ‘Special Report’
President Biden has been reversing or pausing some rules put in place under former President Donald Trump this week, including one designed to bring down the price of insulin.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday announced that the directive would be put on hold among a number of other measures that were passed under Trump, but are not yet in effect.
The measure, signed off on in December, aimed to require some community health centers to deliver savings to low-income patients for insulin and epinephrine in a bid to bring down unaffordable prices.
The rule was scheduled to go into effect on Friday but has since been delayed until March 22.
On Wednesday, White House chief of staff Ron Klain directed agencies to pause orders signed towards the end of Trump’s term so they could be reviewed.
The order directs the administration to immediately withdraw rules that have been sent to the Office of Financial Research but not yet published in the Federal Register. For those that have been published, but are not yet effective, members are directed to “consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days.”
Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Mary Margaret Olohan joined the Daily Caller’s Caity McDuffee to discuss President Biden breaking his own mask mandate at a COVID-19 memorial ceremony.
“On Wednesday when Biden was inaugurated one of his first actions was to sign an executive order mandating masks on federal land,” Olohan continued.
“When Biden gave a speech at the Lincoln Memorial he was seen not wearing a mask while he was giving a speech,” she said.
Olohan also discussed whether or not former President Trump will get any credit from the Biden administration for his COVID-19 response.
“I don’t think he’ll get very much credit at least not from the Biden administration. I mean you see, I believe yesterday, Biden already said that they had to start from scratch with the vaccine rollout, which is just absolutely false, and even CNN fact checked him on that,” she said.
Watch the full video to find Olohan’s full perspective on lawmakers breaking their own COVID-19 rules.
The Declaration re-affirms women and girls’ sex-based rights, and challenges the discrimination we experience from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity.’
Women’s Human Rights Campaign (WHRC) is a group of volunteer women from across the globe dedicated to protecting women’s sex-based rights. Our volunteers include academics, writers, organizers, activists, and health practitioners, and aim to represent the total breadth of the human female experience.
The Declaration on Women’s Sex Based Rights was created by the founders of WHRC to lobby nations to maintain language protecting women and girls on the basis of sex rather than “gender” or “gender identity”. Read our FAQ here.
We are a female-only group, and men are invited to support the cause by donating at our GoFundMe page here or directly through our bank account using the details below. We can accept donations in UK pounds sterling, Euros or US/Australian/New Zealand dollars – please read our How to Donate guide here.
WHRC has published its first set of accounts after one year of trading. Click here to download.
On the re-affirmation of women’s sex-based rights, including women’s rights to physical and reproductive integrity, and the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women and girls that result from the replacement of the category of sex with that of ‘gender identity’, and from ‘surrogate’ motherhood and related practices.
Introduction
This Declaration reaffirms the sex-based rights of women which are set out in the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 18 December 1979 (CEDAW), further developed in the CEDAW Committee General Recommendations, and adopted, inter alia, in the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women 1993 (UNDEVW).
Article 1 of the CEDAW defines discrimination against women to mean,
“any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field.’’
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Dr. Rich Swierhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngDr. Rich Swier2021-01-23 06:21:262021-10-07 20:34:48ACTION: Sign The Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights — Stop the replacement of Sex with Gender Identity
Although the pro-life movement has faced seemingly insurmountable obstacles since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision illegalizing abortion in the U.S., the movement continues to make legal and cultural gains.
This is one of the latest.
In July 2019, I wrote the blog “The Last Planned Parenthood Clinic in Missouri Again Evades Closure” about how the lone Planned Parenthood clinic in my home state of Missouri received multiple court-ordered reprieves from closure after the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) decided not to renew the facility’s license because of dozens of serious health and safety violations.
Public records showed numerous problems at the clinic, including unreported failed abortions, life threatening complications, an illegal abortion at 21 weeks, insufficient supervision of medical residents (students) performing abortions, and inaccurate medical records, among the many other violations.
Yet the St. Louis abortion clinic continued to get court-ordered reprieves.
But this month, Operation Rescue confirmed that now no abortions have been performed there for months. Instead, all abortion appointments are now being referred to the Fairview Heights Planned Parenthood facility across the Mississippi River in Illinois.
How could this happen?
While Missouri has long been a strongly pro-life state with legislation like the 2019 “Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act” and many active pro-life organisations, Defenders of the Unborn president Mary Maschmeier, who has led a peaceful, prayerful and life-saving ministry outside the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic for many years, wrote an email also giving credit to the:
“ordinary citizens who would not take no for an answer. Who persevered day after day, year after year, decade after decade. Ever present on the front lines. In the streets. In the halls of our state legislature. Sidewalk counseling. Prayer warriors… Manning pregnancy aid centers. Staffing ultrasound vans. Rain, snow, heat, cold — ever vigilant.”
Mary also wrote,
“We will not stop until the that unjust practice is banished from our land and encourage our fellow citizens to end abortion in their respective states.”
Conclusion
In 1989, I had just started working as an RN on an oncology (cancer) unit when we discovered that one of our patients had CMV (Cytomegalovirus).
One of our nurses was pregnant and tested positive for the virus. Her doctor told her how her baby could die or have terrible birth defects from the virus, and he recommended an abortion.
“Sue” (not her real name) was frantic. She had two little girls and worked full-time. She said she didn’t know how she could manage a child with serious birth defects.
I told her that it was usually impossible to know if or how much a baby might be impaired before birth. I also told her about my Karen who was born with Down Syndrome and a critical heart defect and died at 5 months. I told her that I treasured the time I had with her and later babysat children with a range of physical and mental difficulties. Most importantly, I also told her that I would be there to help her and her baby.
“Sue” decided against abortion and told the other nurses what I said.
The other nurses were furious with me and said if the baby was born with so much as an extra toe, they would never talk to me again.
But slowly, the other nurses came around and also offered to help Sue and her baby.
In the end, we all celebrated when Sue had her first son, who was perfectly healthy!
My point is that what many people don’t understand is that pro-life doesn’t mean just being against abortion, infanticide and euthanasia. What being pro-life really means is truly caring about all lives, born or unborn.
The article has been republished with permission from Nancy Valko’s blog.
COLUMN BY
Nancy Valko
I have been a registered nurse since 1969 and currently I am a spokesperson for the National Association of Prolife Nurses (www.nursesforlife.org). I have also been a past President of Missouri Nurses… More by Nancy Valko.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00MercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexitieshttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngMercatorNet - Navigating Modern Complexities2021-01-22 05:38:402021-10-07 20:34:51How Missouri became the first abortion-free state in the U.S.
Last week, we reported that 3.2 million 12- to 17-year-olds used marijuana in the past year, according to the new 2018-2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Of those, 39 percent live in the 15 recreational legalization states and the District of Columbia, while 61 percent live in the other 35 states.
We got curious about which states had the lowest levels of past-year marijuana use among kids. These states have one-fourth (26 percent) of young past-year marijuana users, while the uncolored states have three-fourths (61 percent) of them.
Curious about how many kids in your state used marijuana in the past year? Here’s how to find out. See Table C.10, which tells you the Population Estimate for the number of 12- to 17-year-olds who live in your state here.
Multiply that number by the percent of 12- to 17-year-olds in your state who used marijuana in the past year. You can find that number in Table 2 here.
DRUGGED DRIVING
Colorado drugged driving data
The DUID (Driving Under the Influence of Drugs) Victim Voices website has compiled and posted data from Colorado state agencies about the problem of DUID. Here are a few highlights:
18.6 percent of past-month adult marijuana users admit to driving after marijuana use. The percent of high school marijuana users who admit this is an astonishing 54.4 percent.
Toxicology tests of those arrested for DUI show 4,205 positive screens for cannabinoids. Of those, 4,069 were positive for THC. Positive screens for alcohol were 3,956.
Yet 2018 DUI charges in the state were 75.3 percent for alcohol, 6.4 percent for THC.
For more Colorado DUID data, visit the website here.
More than half of people using cannabis for pain experience multiple withdrawal symptoms
Lara N. Coughlin and colleagues from the University of Michigan Addiction Center find that more than half of medical marijuana patients who take the drug to ease pain experience mild to severe withdrawal symptoms when they are between uses.
Marijuana withdrawal symptoms include craving for the drug, as well as “anxiety, sleep difficulties, decreased appetite, restlessness, depressed mood, aggression, irritability, nausea, sweating, headache, stomach pain, strange dreams, increased anger, and shakiness.”
The researchers surveyed 527 Michigan residents seeking medical marijuana for noncancer pain three times, once to establish a baseline and then one year and two years after patients’ initial survey. While more than half of patients experienced withdrawal symptoms, about 10 percent experienced worsening symptoms over time, making them vulnerable to developing a cannabis use disorder.
Read University of Michigan account of this study here.
Better data for a better understanding of the use and safety profile of cannabidiol (CBD) products
FDA Administrator Stephen M. Hahn, MD, issued an explanatory statement regarding the agency’s pursuit of a better understanding of the potential positive and negative effects of CBD. The statement describes the challenges involved in collecting and evaluating CBD data and points to a “framework for the FDA’s development of research projects that can leverage novel data sources and can form the foundation for additional research on the safety profile of CBD products.”
Read Dr. Hahn’s FDA statementhere.
SAFETY
Colorado issues a health and safety warning about contaminated marijuana
The Colorado Department of Revenue and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a warning last Friday about unsafe levels of yeast and mold found in marijuana produced by Carrick-Harvest, LLC. The company does business as Veritas Fine Cannabis. The yeast and mold levels are above acceptable limits established by the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. The warning lists batch numbers so that those who bought these items can return them to the dispensaries from which they bought them.
Lack of standards, dubious business practices threaten to upend cannabis testing industry
Unethical business practices are undermining public confidence in marijuana products. Some producers “lab shop” to find a testing facility that will give them results they want to see in terms of THC levels (high) and contaminants (none). Others adulterate their products with spray-on marijuana oil or THC crystals to indicate a higher THC presence than exists.
Washington state regulators suspended the license of Praxis Laboratory for allegedly falsifying testing data on more than 1,200 samples by supplying higher THC levels than tests found.
One lab owner explains that it just takes time for a new industry to develop standards. “Give it another five to 15 years,” she says.
Kids who vape are four times more likely to become cigarette smokers later in life
Researcher Olusegun Owotomo and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin analyzed data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study. They find that e-cigarette use is associated with increased odds of cigarette smoking among teenagers who had no previous intention to smoke. A 5-minute video by the lead researcher nicely explains the study and its findings.
Read full text of Pediatrics article and access the video here.
Chemicals in e-cigarettes disrupt the gut barrier and trigger inflammation
Aditi Sharma and colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in La Jolla, and Assiut University in Egypt find that chemicals in e-cigarettes disrupt the gut barrier and trigger inflammation.
They say chronic use of e-cigarettes “led to a ‘leaky gut,’ in which microbes and other molecules seep out of the intestines, resulting in chronic inflammation. Such inflammation can contribute to a variety of diseases and conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, dementia, certain cancers, atherosclerosis, liver fibrosis, diabetes, and arthritis.”
Read UCSD’s description of this complex study here.
Read full text of the study published in iSciencehere.
SHORT TAKES
California governor’s proposed 2021 budget includes funds to consolidate three state marijuana regulatory agencies into one.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s new budget contains funding to collapse the three state agencies that regulate legal recreational marijuana into one agency. Is it the State Department of Public Health? Sadly, no. Proposed is $153.8 million to create a Department of Cannabis Control within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency. In other words, an agency to serve the needs of the commercial marijuana industry rather than the public’s health and well being.
Read last entry in the California Department of Food and Agriculture bulletin here.
Congress commands CDC, NIDA to study “the potential health impact of safe consumption sites.”
A bill tied to the stimulus package passed by Congress in December includes language that directs the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institute on Drug Abuse to provide Congress with “an updated literature review and evaluation of the potential public-health impact of Overdose Prevention Centers in the US” by the end of June 2021.
“Safe consumption sites” provide medically pure addictive drugs and a place where addicts can consume them with medical personnel in-house to prevent or reverse overdose. There are none yet in the US, although harm reduction advocates and the Drug Policy Alliance, which appears to be responsible for getting the language calling for a literature review into the stimulus bill, have been trying to establish one in Philadelphia.
Elinore F. McCance-Katz, MD, PhD, resigned as the Assistant Secretary for Mental Health and Substance Use and director of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
She says she saw the violent takeover of the Capitol building. “I believe that this behavior was totally unacceptable and, in my own heart, I simply am not able to continue.”
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00National Families in Actionhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngNational Families in Action2021-01-17 07:50:372021-10-07 21:08:51Here are the states with the lowest levels of marijuana use among kids 12-17 years old
